Art class: the drawing of a clown

 

 During class we had to sit around our model that was dressed as a clown called Bubbles. He performed a couple of poses for us as we had a set time limit to draw him. I first used pencil to sketch him however due to lost track of time I couldn't put as much detail as I wanted. the second time I used charcoal to draw him however the time limit was in 3 minutes so I had to rush. The last picture I drew in pencil ,as I felt comfortable, and the time was extended but however he had to sit in the opposite direction so I had to draw from memory, which was mainly the shading.

Texturing part 2: UV maps

I followed the Maya tutorial video and this is what I produced.

La belle et la bète (beauty and the beast) review

La belle et la bète (beauty and the beast) review (1946)

A tale of love brought to life.

The story starts off with Belle's (Bell) father going off on a trip only to find a mysterious castle, there stands a beast in human clothing that appears and states that the father will be killed unless if he hands over one of his daughters instead. The father travels back home telling the story to his family, which made Belle to abandon the house and travel back to the castle only to be greeted in a high-class manor. After a few days dining with the beast she begs him that she could leave and he agrees but she must come back within a week. She disappears back to her home and bonds with her family yet again only to explain that the beast is kind and gentle. The family did trust her and over heard her talking the golden key that unlocks the secret room. She returns only to find out that her human lover, Adelaide, infiltrates a secret room only to die and transformed into a beast where the original beast transformed back into a prince. Belle and the prince float away living happily ever after. 

 

It's hard to say the good and bad points about the original "beauty and the beast" without talking about Disney's "beauty and the beast". So I'll cut to the chase Disney's version is a far better adaptation, with bright colours, charming songs and voice over and the beast made more like an actual monster and not a guy in a furry costume.  

 

I enjoy the silliness, which sadly back in the day it was meant to be taken seriously, which is probably bad as the film itself didn't want to turn out that way. The visuals and settings are a delight to enjoy by having the statues move as they are played by actors and it also gives off the feeling of illusion. The lighting of the candles gives this mysterious castle the shine and style that it obviously wanted and the actors that plays as statues gives a brilliant performance by not saying any dialog but instead act like mimes where they act though body movement or shifty eyes.

The bad points is that the subtitles don't always show up on screen so it feels like you are missing important parts of the film, the main issue in the film is the beast character, he always seems to call upon a specific time yet hardly follows though them himself. For example during the film he  announced that he would kill Belle's father in 15 minutes... also he talks about dining with Belle at 7 o'clock and rarely shows up on time. Even seven days for Belle to see her family? Why not less? Why is he being specific? it actually become really noticeable and hard to avoid no matter how much the film is enjoyable.  

Overall this movie gets 6/10. Back in the day it could have been taken seriously however it's so over the top with it's acting that it probably won't show off this fear that the Beast character is meant to have. The story is all over the place and continuously tells us it's not a romantic film yet has romantic scenes. Suddenly Belle likes him and then doesn't and wants to be friends and later when the Beast is revealed to be a prince she states she'll love him in time, which isn't a problem in films but give the guy a bone here! he has tried and done so much for Belle the romance doesn't work and it's all one side despite the beast having many abilities.

Texturing part 1: common shaders

ceramic

Plastic

Silver

Chrome

Glass

 Ghost

Glow

Alien review

Alien review

In space no one can watch this.

The story starts off in space with a cargo vessel receiving a distress signal. The crew decided to see if they can help them out. They landed on an unknown planet, there they find a ship, inside they find a room with thousands of mysterious eggs, one of the crew members gets caught by the alien that hatched inside where it wraps around his face. The crew brought him on board trying everything they can to remove it but nothing they did succeeded. Later they find out that the hatched creature died and released the crew member's face. They decided to talk about it while happily eating around the table where suddenly an alien burst out of his stomach and escapes. One by one the crew members were hunt down and killed until a women, Ripley, decides to stop the alien by activating a self-distrust sequence on the ship. She managed to survive by hopping into an escape pod and float away only to notice that the alien was aboard on the ship. Ripley quickly comes up with a plan to get rid of the alien once and for all. She quickly straps herself onto a seat and releases the door which sucked out the alien, ending the story.

The film does brilliantly by having the story quick and simple to understand but sadly not unique however that's not what makes this film interesting. It's the characters that treats each other like family that makes this film interesting. The characters are by no means interesting on their own but as one it feels like you are watching a strong bond between them, which you can consider that its own character. Interestingly they did change the idea of women in movies by having Ripley pass the bechdel test (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test) by having Ripley able to talk to another female without talking about guys she likes and has a few decent tough scenes, even though that during the end of the film where you see Ripley in her underwear you can call it fan-service but I see it as the character is finally able to relax from what has been happened. Even IF people consider it fan-service for the men, I personally don't see it and that could because she is not to my liking.

The bad points is that the jump scares are way too predictable and done way too much almost you know what’s going to happen. For example: when the captain was climbing down the air vent you knew that the alien was going to be in the same spot he was heading and even the cat runs really fast scenes where you think it might be an alien and it turns out it’s the cat, which for some reason you can easily predict which one is which.

Overall this movie gets an 8/10. Really good and easy to understand and despite being cliché and obvious. It’s mainly about the characters and that is what makes this film brilliant, you end up caring for their survival but that’s because they show ordinary scenes together (dinner, lunch, chatting) which makes them feel more alive. The background and sound effects are amazing and joyful to watch, which made the scenes look more appealing.

invisible cities (properly embedded)

Invisable Cities Presentation

My Final three pictures

Exterior Establishing Shot

 Low Angle Exterior Shot



Interior Shot

Influence Map

I used these visuals to help me to come up with ideas for my invisible cities, Octavia.

Invisable Cities Powerpoint Presentation

https://www.scribd.com/doc/244127264/Invisable-Cities-Presentation

Art class

In todays lesson we had to use any form of art medium to draw a balloon structure. I used oil pastels to colour in the first picture and then moved on to sketch a main part that I focused on, which was a balloon tied up.

Character part 1: modelling

 I have completed the tutorial for Maya Modeling by creating a cartoon pencil and rubber.

Help on Maya (rubber)

I need help. I'm continuing the tutorial for Maya and this time on the rubber part of the video, got up to 1:10. I've just started and yet already something is wrong. I am unable to shrink the edges that the video instructed. I've done everything the video says up to this point and now hit a wall, I high lighted up the block and clicked "offset", held the ctrl button and held the middle mouse to make the edges thin and close together however the block doesn't change its appearance on screen. can someone help or know a way around it? Thank you.

2001: Space Odyssey review (1968)

2001: Space Odyssey review (1968)

Jump into Stanley Kubrick’s mind.

The story starts off four million years ago with group of apes awoke in the African desert to find a mysterious black bar in front of them, they panic and slowly adjust to its existence by touching and feeling it. Later one of the apes discovered that a bone can be used as a weapon and uses this advantage to take over lands and killing prey for food. Fast-forward into the future a group of astronauts finds the same mysterious black bar, called the monolith, buried under the moon’s surface. The spacemen decided to take a picture in front of it when the black bar sends a high pitched signal to tell them to come to Jupiter. Eighteen months later a new set of astronauts with an artificial intelligence robot named Hal 9000 under ago a mission to Jupiter. David and Frank are running the spaceship while the rest of the crew are in cryogenic hibernation. The crew had some doubts about this mission however Hal aims to continue to make this a success as he believes it is incapable of error. One by one Hal controls the ship in order to kill the crew members until it was just one left, David. The main character ends up shutting down Hal and continues the mission alone in a space pod, where he finally comes face to face with the Monolith and under goes a weirdly bright and colourful visuals where he wakes up in a pure white clean room where he continues sees his older self though different timelines of his life to a point off his death where he witness the black bar again and becomes reborn outside the Earth’s atmosphere…

The good points about this magnificent film is that the soundtrack and audio really stands out with its iconic music and unforgettable audio that mixes up perfectly with the visuals, for example if the camera would shooting outside the spaceship and pod the audio cuts out completely giving u the feeling of space not just the visuals. The original ideas and settings are entertaining to watch, even though that there is a lot of slow movements in this movie but it works really well for its tone however the film does it a bit too much that it could end up boring. The best part about this movie is that the ending just leaves you to question everything. What happened? What was the black bar? Why was it made? Who made it? Why is David now a child floating in space? What was the reason to show us David in different part of his older life? It’s like the ending of “Inception” it just leaves it to your imagination to find out for yourself.

The negative points is that the movie is slow but doesn't give out much information of the characters during that long period of time, for example: the three men that was in the cryogenic hibernation has very little screen time therefore we can’t feel upset or pain for those who was killed by Hal. This movie focus too much on its pacing than actual characters. Hal and David are the only ones we know about and therefore we would care for David’s safety or Hal’s success.

Overall this movie is an 8/10. Entertaining and worth watching even if it’s just for the music or visuals, good use of camera angles and deigns. This movie could have been improved if they took out some pointless long duration shoots, e.g. the long spaceship that flies by, at first I couldn't tell when it was going to end so I was left seeing the same shot over and over. That aside it was still an entertaining and a great film.

“Matched Kubrick's photographic eye to a story about watching, transformed him into a director of the epic, and made one giant leap in sci-fi cinema that's never been matched.”-Brian Gibson.

(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000085-2001_a_space_odyssey/?search=2001)

“Only a few films are transcendent, and work upon our minds and imaginations like music or prayer or a vast belittling landscape. Most movies are about characters with a goal in mind, who obtain it after difficulties either comic or dramatic. “2001: A Space Odyssey'' is not about a goal but about a quest, a need.”-Roger Ebert

(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-2001-a-space-odyssey-1968)

“Kubrick also presents the viewer with a lot of food for thought about what it means to be human, and where the human race is going. Yes, the ending is weird and hard to comprehend - but that's the nature of the future. Kubrick and Clarke have started the task of envisioning it, now it's up to the audience to continue.”-Simon Booth

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/reviews)

Meg's class

We had to create an animation

Presenation for green light review

My PowerPoint presentation link full of ideas and drawing thumbnails.   https://www.scribd.com/doc/242937734/Invisible-Cities-Green-Light-Review

Modelling - geometry types

I completed the fist stage of the modelling. Personally I thought it went well.

 Completed my second stage of the Maya modeling tutorial. I don't think it went as well as my first modeling technique but I'm finding it more impressive the more techniques I learn.

help on Maya (Egg)

I am stuck on something on the Maya tutorials. I've obeyed every command that the video instructed however every time I click "extrude" it creates something that isn't correct (see the bottom picture), which is not what I wanted or was instructed. I made sure that "keep faces together" was on so I don't know what happening and I've selected the right faces so I've done nothing wrong (as far as I know) and it still fails to give me the options that the Maya tutorials instructed. (FYI: no, I don't know why there is a dent on the top. After I completed everything the video instructed I found it like that, am I missing something? I watched the video three times and attempted the egg twice).

Thank you to those who can help me.

First art class

First art class.

The object.
We had an object placed in front of us for the class to sketch.

My drawing of the object. We had to draw what was in front of us by using a pencil. This is how my work turned out. Personally I think it could of turned out better by darkening the lines I've already drew.

The space in between drawing. This is something I believe I've never done before, the class had to draw or fill in the spaces in between the object. I drew the main part of the object with the gaps that I meant to be the rope around the object.

Drawing in chuckhole. I ha great difficulty drawing in chuckhole as the feel of it makes me cringe. I tried my best continuing to draw despite that however I ended up with this, which I'm not too proud off.

King Kong review (1933)

King Kong Review (1933)

A story about King Kong, The eighth wonder of the world.

This well-known story starts off with a filming crew setting sail to shoot a movie. The crew managed to find a mysterious island that contains a tribe that worships this giant gorilla “King Kong”. They took a hold of a female, Ann, which was on board with the crew and used her as a sacrifice for the almighty Kong. The King shows up and takes her away. At that point the crew sets off to find Ann and comes across many untold creatures that should have been long gone. The heroic crew member, John, finds the captive girl and saves her from the monstrous beast. The director was hyped about the opportunity that was in the palm off his hands and couldn’t help but capture and show off King Kong to the rest of the world so he could be rich and famous. During the show the photographers was using too much flash on their cameras, which naturally caused King Kong to go berserk and wreak havoc around the city to try and find his beloved. The battle was underway and planes and fire trucks was on the track to find and bring down King Kong. They succeeded with the final words “It wasn’t the planes that killed him. Tis beauty that killed the beast”.

The movie and the way it showed its visuals was very interesting and unique. They used stop-motion for all of the monster scenes and they combined it with the actors on the set by over lapping them by having the monsters in the background, despite how cheesy and tacky it looks today, I will give them credit that they doing something that looks impossible and they obviously show a great deal of determination and care for this movie. The music is this movie’s high point not only having the tone of the music match what was presented on the screen but also timing too, for example: when the chief of the tribe walks slowly down stairs to meet the film crew you can hear the drum beat timed perfectly with each step making him more fearful and it works as people in the tribe fears him and steps aside for him.

 

The only bad points is mainly the romance scenes in the movie, John just pops out of the blue saying to Ann that he loves her for some reason, which is a little rushed even by movie standards, which is chuckle worthy. However without that awkward love moment we wouldn’t have the motivation to rescue her. Another failed point of this movie is Ann herself, she doesn’t have her own identity and mainly exist to be saved or a reward for the hero. Other than being attractive and blonde she doesn’t have any appealing character traits however given the time it’s understandable why however the screaming is unbearable.

In this movie there is a lot of racism stereotypes and sexism remarks, which is interesting seeing how much that not only movies has evolved but humanity did too. The sexism remarks is  interesting since they have a lot of “women can’t do anything because they are women” moments, looking into it and considering it “normal” for those times It's almost similar to the “Batman can do anything because he is Batman” meme today; sooner or later we all will grow out it and look back only to see how silly and arrogant it was.  Women can do anything just as much as a men and Batman can’t do everything just because he's Batman.

 

Overall this movie is a 7/10. There is a lot of problems that could have been fixed however the effort of making the movie was clearly on the screen and It’s nice to have sound despite how muffled it was. This movie suffers the same problem as “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” it takes itself too seriously that it seems cheesy for our point of view however this movie is a great deal of fun despite it was meant to be a horror film.

Which King Kong is better the 1933 or 2005? Nostalgia critic's review- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DMDrczrSLc)

 

"It's unrivaled in its sheer cinematic quality, and one of a kind."-Felix Vasquez Jr (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1011615-king_kong/)

 

"First, the 1933 version of KING KONG, is for me, the greatest fantasy film ever made. Sure, there are fantasy films with far better special effects (THE MATRIX, JURASSIC PARK) better acting (the acting here is of the period!) but KING KONG is a film of tremendous excitement". - Glenn Andreiev.  (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024216/reviews)

 

 

Maya notes.

I've taken notes that I believe will help me when I use Maya.

"Face" means a flat surface of an object.

"Edges" means lines that connects to the faces of the objects and the parts that you are able to move around freely.

Splitting technique: click "Edit mesh" then "Insert edge loop tool". (It is used to create more lines so it looks more dense so you can move more around and to create in better detail). 

Push 3 on the keyboard to smooth out the lines (BE WARNED COMPUTER MIGHT CRASH) 

To make it ACTUALLY make the object smooth click on to "Mesh" and click "smooth".

To create a shape: click on "create" on the top bar selections then select whatever shape you want.  

Click on the "scale tool" to change the scale of an object. 

Right click and select "face" and select any face surface you want and click "edit mesh" and "extrude". 

Push 4 on your keyboard so you can see inside of the object. 

Click "Offset" on the right hand side is where you can create another layer so you are tightening up the object's faces. 

TECHNIQUES edit polygons/objects:

1) right click on the faces and click "edit mesh" and then "keep faces together" (turn that on). That'll allow you to edit all the selected faces at the same time.

2) to create more limes on the object click "edit mesh" and then "insert edge loop tool" 

3) to cut/split the objects click "edit mesh" and then click "cut faces tool". You'll be able to use though the object. 

4) right click an object and select "edge" and select any edges (while holding down alt you can select many edges). Click "edit mesh" then "bevel". This helps to create extra faces that'll combine with the object. 

Metropolis review

Metropolis review (1927)

A fiction world brought to life!

This is undoubtedly an interesting movie with a clear understanding of the three act structure, character tropes and gorgeous soundtrack that plays through the beginning to the end.

The story starts off in a futuristic utopian city where a set of people was divvied into two different class. The wealthy city planners who works above the surface of their city and the working class are the people who do manual labor underground to power up the city. One of those wealthy class Freder spots a beautiful women with a group of children. She ended up disappearing where the young man tries to find her only to discover the realistic horror of the underground life which causes the city above to functioning. He went to plead with his father, the creator of the city, to let them go however he refused. As a response he took over one of the worker's life and continued to experience the hardship and learns of Maria, the beautiful women he saw before, and ends up joining them for their quest for freedom. During the meantime the creator of the utopian city visits an old friend the inventor who created a robot which he plans bring the creator's wife back from the dead. The creator had a different idea, he asked to capture Maria and use her as a tool for the robot and cause her to sin so that her encouraging words would be discarded. The inventor agrees and does just that. After a while of ordering Maria-robot to sin the lower class becomes angry and that an attack to the city above is the only way to solve it, only to realise that they forgot their children and the city below starts to flood. Freder saves Maria and together end up bringing the children up to safety and putting a stop to the inventor's plans. The father saw the horrific battle and understands that what he done wrong and aims to correct that.

The story clearly escalate from a lovely romance story into end of the world movie. This movie obviously wants to be recognised to look visually appealing and unforgettable by taking the next leap forward from the other previous films by having unique design and style of the buildings. A great deal of care and love went into making this film and you can obviously tell that by watching the actors try to do their best to portray emotions and body movements into their characters however at some points it's almost too funny and that you can't take this movie too seriously in which they wanted you to.

Maria is probably the worst point in this movie as she just turns everything from all seriousness to goofy and cheesy in a mater of seconds however with that being said she isn't completely bad as during the ending where the Maria-robot is taking over the city's surface she does her best to separate the two different characters so it's easier for the audience to figure out which one is which by looking at her body language and facial expressions but sadly goofy is still goofy no matter how much they try to sugar-coat it.

 

Overall this movie gets a 7.6/10. It was very well paced compare to the "Das cabinet des Dr Caligari" movie and we do get to see the main protagonist undergoes few obstacles and changes that makes him an identifiable character. This movie was clever to show every character's point of view and ideals so the audience can understand why they are doing what they are doing. Sadly the iconic robot was only seen around eight minutes and the movie could of been a little more interesting if the robot had more scenes resulting in an ending between the robot and a Freder. The soundtrack, visuals and story are all fun and enjoyable to experience and highly recommended even if you are not the general target audience.

"Devoted film- and music-lovers alike will enjoy the latest reconstruction (images and sound) of Fritz Lang's truly marvelous tale of mediation over violence." - S. James Wegg
(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013775-metropolis/)

"The newly restored footage enhances sci-fi's first masterpiece, making this essential viewing for any movie lover." - Kim Newman
(http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136955)

“Metropolis” does what many great films do, creating a time, place and characters so striking that they become part of our arsenal of images for imagining the world. The ideas of “Metropolis” have been so often absorbed into popular culture that its horrific future city is almost a given" - Roger Ebert
(http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-metropolis-1927)